5 Things I'm Doing Wrong in my Manuscript

If you follow my posts, you know that I'm about to publish my first book in early 2018, so I'm currently experiencing the process of self-publishing for the first time. I recently got my manuscript back from it's first round of professional editing and I was so pleased with the outcome. I did however, learn of some mistakes I'm making that can be seen among new authors. I wanted to share them in case it's something you can correct in your own writing.

1. Blond vs Blonde

Apparently, there is a masculine a feminine version to the word. Blond without an “e” is masculine when blonde with the “e” is feminine. I thought this one was so crazy because English is rarely distinguished between male and female. This was probably the most interesting one to me. I personally love learning stuff like this.

2. Capitalizing Nick Names

The trick my editor told me is if you can replace the nick name with a person's actual name, then capitalize it. This will be a tricky thing to remember, but I think once a habit is built, it will become second nature.

Ex: I talked to my dad about it yesterday. vs. I talked to Dad about it yesterday.

3. Ok Instead of Okay

Yeah, so this one's pretty embarrassing, but since we live in the age of texting, I thought I'd point it out. Through all of my novels I was writing “ok.” instead of “okay”. However, if you are writing a conversation delivered through a text then the “ok” version would be acceptable.

4.Cum vs Come

I debated putting this in here because it isn't really right or wrong and you will probably only have this problem if you write within the romance genre. From what I understand, this one is more personal preference than anything. While the technically correct term when referring to semen is “cum”. However, if you are anything like me, that feels a little on the pornish side and personally I would prefer people not see my novels that way. Classy not trashy and all that.

5.Indenting the First Paragraph of a Chapter

The first paragraph of a chapter is not supposed to be indented. I think I got this from seeing the first letter in the first paragraph of a chapter in such a large font that it appears to be indented. This one is apparently very common with new authors..

If any of these are in your manuscript, you are clearly not alone. While I am a very sensitive person about most things, when it comes to taking pointers and criticism on my writing, I try very hard to not let it be personal and see it as the positive it is. Learning to better your craft is always a good things for not only your own skill set, but also the quality of art for your readers.

I hope you enjoyed this post and keep writing!